Warrior of Two Fates: First Edge
by Rhaza3517
Summary: Two universes united as one... a cadre of heroes and villains, facing off in the eternal battle of light versus darkness, across the cosmos... and a new addition to the fight... one who carries a living stone of justice in his chest, and the heritage of noble Lords in his genes. Marvel/DC crossover, based on the Last Son books here on fanfic by a friend (I hope he likes it!)
1. Chapter 1

This next story collection I have planned will be taking place in the shared universe created by my talented friend, The Writer with No Name, and where he has combined the tales of Superman with those of X-Men: Evolution, and the rest of the Marvel and DC universes as well. My addition to it, though, is going to be through the arrival of an OC based in both Image Comics and Wildstorm Comics, both now part of DC. I hope you all will enjoy, because with all the details I'm making sure of, it's going to be a whale of a tale. Later! 


	2. Chapter 2

Warrior of Two Fates: First Edge

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Disclaimer:

X-Men: Evolution, the Avengers, and all Marvel characters are property of Marvel Comics.

Superman, the Justice League, and all DC characters (now including all the races, characters, and technology of Image/Wildstorm Comics) are the property of DC Comics.

My _latest_ batch of fics, kiddies; hope you all like them.

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I had originally planned to write the beginning of this in a similar fashion that Writer with No Name had, but then I remembered that I'm writing this to join HIS dual uni, and he's already done an awesome set-up job in that respect. So, a few nips and tucks here, and I hope it reads better now. Later!

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Chapter One: Remembering the Past...

_Earth Date: September 20, 2009, just beyond the orbit of Saturn, in the Sol System..._

To any other being, he was invisible. But, to those ancient and unseen beings of the cosmos, who oversaw and kept a close eye on how the universe and its entirety existed, he was clear as day: a single, sixty foot tall humanoid being, bald, with clear white eyes, and clad in a white toga tunic. Golden gloves covered his hands, with golden boots on his feet, a golden belt at his waist, and most amazing of all, he was simply hovering there in space, just beyond the multiple rings of the sixth planet of the young solar system.

He did not move at all, even as the solar winds whipped by him, and small, stray pockets of pulverized space debris passed him by. Then, as if a certain time had been reached, he spoke, unhindered by the vacuüm around him, nor the lack of air to conduct sound.

"Hear me, children of the universe, and those who dwell upon the blue-green world of this star system." The emotionless being spoke in a powerful, booming voice that seemed to exude both strength and calmness in the same strain. "I am Uatu the Watcher, he who has sworn an ancient oath with my brethren to only observe and record what transpires across the universe. I come before you to illustrate the tale of one of your fellows, he who now dwells upon your home world, but whom is descended from TWO races from beyond the stars."

The solemn being turned his vision toward the outer rings of the solar system, before continuing his oration to the vacuüm. "One of these races counts themselves among the elder predecessors of the cosmos, and the other continues to grow strong to this day. This person I speak of, who comes and stands with you all, fighting for freedom for all the sentients who wish it, carries the legacy of those two proud races as their rightful inheritor, to forever remember them, and to follow in their noble example."

Sweeping his arm out, a veritable montage of events began to play out in a strange holographic vision, even as he continued to speak to the silent regions of space around him.

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The universe... the beginning of creation...

The evolution of life brought about by the after-effects of the legendary Big Bang...

This titanic event was how it all began anew in existence: the far-reaching pockets of gases that quickly became life-sustaining stars, the emergence of immeasurable planets capable of sustaining life, and the rise of trillions, upon trillions, upon TRILLIONS of unique and amazing races across the expanse of the cosmos. Prominent among these races, who came to be called the 'First Ones,' were the benevolent, wise, and immortal Guardians of the ancient planet Oa.

Solemn beings of knowledge and order who sought neither conquest nor subjugation of others, the Guardians of Oa stepped forth into the universe and created the noble Green Lantern Corps to stand fast and safeguard peace in the cosmos. The Corps quickly got down to business, ensuring the stability of the universe by bestowing the myriad Corpsmen that they quickly 'drafted' into their ranks with the willpower-fueled green power rings that came to symbolize their devotion to the cause of peace and order.

By dividing the known regions of the universe into 'Sectors' that could be patrolled by their Corpsmen, the Guardians made sure to keep a sharp eye on the known races who would seek to enslave others, while coordinating all their efforts with the other peaceful races who shared their beliefs in freedom and peace, such as Kymellia, Thanagar, and Azerath. These efforts became more profound and necessary when the noble Kryptonian race, and their home world of Krypton, suddenly blew up, depriving the Guardians of one of their most trusted allies, and likely the most technologically advanced society that shared their beliefs in peaceful co-existence.

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Long before Krypton's death, though, other notable races of the cosmos - descended from its first entities and who later evolved into the Skrull, the Kree, the Chitauri, and the Shi'ar, - went down another historical path in the universe. They sought to solidify their claims upon all their portions of the universe, and many others, by boldly conquering world after world and many of the races younger than them, and using their enslaved backs to raise themselves up, reaping the benefits from the blood, sweat, and tears of their servants. Thankfully, with the aid of the Corps backing up the growing Galactic Confederacy, the free races and the Guardians kept those four warmongers at bay.

Some time after this, the Guardians and the Corps became aware of strange dimensional anomalies and spatial fluctuations in a galaxy at a fair distance from the rim of the known universe. Upon investigation by the Lanterns, though, an ancient and vast dimensional barrier was found there that actually led back to a part of the universe not far from the epicenter of the Big Bang. The Guardians concluded that only the massive, ancient beings known as the Celestials could have constructed the barrier, probably to keep something of great value to them safe from those unworthy or unable to protect it. Obviously closed off for millenia, but now open once more through unknown means, cloaked probes were sent by the Lantern Corps to survey the barrier, and to see what lay beyond its edge.

They were not disappointed. The data the probes revealed some time later to the Guardians was amazing to behold: the immense barrier had kept hidden a sizable ancient galaxy from prying eyes, crowned by a highly advanced planet called Khera, and inhabited by the long-lived Kherubim. Also known as Kherans, these powerful humanoids were varied in their near-immortal existence, with at least two or three separate genetic classes of beings with unique abilities and teachings sharing the world they lived on. Still, they all were very strong, staunch warriors who sought long-lasting peace and stability in their region of the cosmos, even as they carefully sought out uninhabited worlds to peacefully inhabit and spread their race across.

One of the most prominent genetic castes on Khera, the Kherubim High Lords of the Pantheon, governed their kind with nobility and a firm grasp of peace-keeping on their world, sharing their many duties with the combat-orientated Coda Sisterhood, an all-female sect of deadly warriors without peer. Even so, even their well-established world came into contact, and did battle with, another alien race from yet another world in their galaxy for several long centuries. This vicious race sought galactic domination over all others before them; they were soon known to the Kherans as the Daemonites.

The actions of the Daemonites attempting to get past the Kheran planetary defenses and invade Khera led a faction of the Kherubim Lords and their proven military forces to set out from Khera to track the Daemonites down, and to defeat them once and for all. Finding out that the Daemonites' own planet had been destroyed, forcing them to wander from world to world and act as they did to whom they met, gave the Kherans understanding of their formidable foes, but it also showed that the Daemonites had allowed fanaticism and conquest to dominate their people and begin their pursuit of dark conquests.

Along that path, as the Kherans slowly, but surely, drove the Daemonites away from any inhabited planet they came across again and again, they amazingly discovered the orbital path of an ancient comet that passed by Khera every fifty standard years. To their shock, at the same time, the Kherans ALSO discovered a well-hidden astral gate of unknown construction within the comet's trail. The astral gate, and the pocket realm within it, held a vast solar system, with planets and inhabitable space, and most prominently, the vast world of Aegena, upon which two warring factions fought for dominance upon its surface: one side was known as the rebel Protectorate warriors, and the other group was the noble class-led soldiers of the Directorate.

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The Directorate was led by the Aegenian Royal Family, most of whom were benevolent, but its ruler and his eldest son, along with many of the prevalent nobility, ruled with an iron fist and will over the planet. The Protectorate was composed of oppressed rebels and other Aegenians who sought to overthrow those corrupt rulers, and to avenge the deaths of innocents from an unprovoked raid on a school, intended to educate only those seeking occupations away from military life. Even though the Directorate had the greater number of soldiers, both sides shared a mutual combat advantage: their ancient discovery of a unique, symbiotic mineral in the deep caverns of their world.

When integrated into their bodies via a special, well-researched and proven process - later called 'Union' by its discoverers - the mineral imparted superhuman abilities to the Aegenians, among them being incredible strength, flight, and energy projection skills, used with an energy construct used to channel the vast amount of resulting energies from the joining of the symbiotic minerals and their living hosts. These unique living minerals, now a part of their lives since its discovery, came to be called the 'Justice Stones,' and their accompanying constructs 'Justice Staves.' Seeing all those abilities in action made the Kherans feel that they could share much with the Aegenians, once peace had been achieved. They only had to make sure that the Daemonites they had been chasing for some time did not enslave the Aegenians.

The Daemonites themselves possessed both shape-shifting abilities, and the devious power to possess other beings' bodies as their own, not to mention their own high levels of technology. So far, only a strong will or Kheran detection technology had been the best methods to defeat the possession of the host. Thankfully, the Justice Stones were the perfect foil to keep the Daemonites from doing severe damage to the Aegenians. The unique symbiotic relationship of the Justice Stones and their users made any attempt by the Daemonites to take Aegenian hosts totally unsuccessful, and despite the Directorate's desire for the Kherans not to aid them in any way, the Kherans were secretly able to land on Aegena in pursuit of the Daemonite aggressors with the help of the Protectorate forces.

The Kherans quickly aided the Protectorate in full force, driving the Daemonites away from Aegena, and right into the waiting arms of the Kheran battle group waiting in space. The invaders were utterly routed and completely defeated in short order after that. With their mission done, the Kherans asked once more if the Aegenians wished to engage in peace and trade talks, but the Royal Family promptly declined, and the Protectorate did not have enough clout after all the fighting to agree to such terms. So, the Kherans left and returned home. Unknown to the Royal Family, though, before the Kherans left, a very small number of Aegenians, from both the Protectorate and the Directorate factions, wished to travel with the highly advanced Kherans to their home world and learn from them, as well as to finally escape from the civil war between the two factions spreading across their world.

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The Kherans welcomed the Aegenian party aboard, and returned to Khera some time later with their new allies in tow. The Aegenians were given a sizable island to inhabit on Khera, and with their own growing level of technological understanding, came to thrive with their new Kheran neighbors for many years... up until ANOTHER civil war broke out, but this time on Khera, among the very caste-classes of the Kherans. The Aegenians had already seen this before, and did the only sensible thing they could do to escape the rising conflict: they gathered up all their members and returned to Aegena with all available speed.

All but a few of the Aegenians succeeded in returning to their own ships and departing from Kheran space, the others bravely sacrificing their lives to safeguard their escape back to the hidden world of their birth. One of them in particular, however, had a far more important role to carry out...

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_Earth Date: September 17,1985_

"Their flank is fully exposed! _Press forward!_" The forceful warrior's cry that came from the throat of Thyrhan Entehros - born on the planet Aegena, a loyal Protectorate combat reservist and competent scientist, highly regarded in his accomplishments and knowledge of the Justice Stone, Staff, and all its properties, - echoed out to the group of black-garbed Spartan Guards accompanying him as he flew with them in their battle formation toward the now-cleared aerial dry docks of the Kheran Navy.

Quickly fighting through scrambling dock worker-androids and a smattering of laser turrets, Thyrhan and his twenty soldier-plus combat platoon continued to move on and carry out their escape plan. Having gained impressive understanding in the various applications of Kheran technology while living among the Kheran people, Thyrhan had chosen to stay behind when the caste civil war had begun on Khera, while the rest of his people's contingent chose to return to Aegena to escape the in-fighting of the Kherans. But, it was not because he wanted to fight for one caste or the other on his new home. Thyrhan had chosen to stay behind as his brethren escaped from Khera,... for love.

In his travels among the Kherans to better grasp their various cultures, insights on life and the universe that their near-immortaliy had granted them, and their values, Thyrhan had secretly fallen madly in love with a spirited Kheran woman of the empathic Adrastea class, and she with him in turn, despite him not being a natural-born Kheran, or even of the warrior class. The potent empathic link that had formed between them after a few wondrous meetings confirmed to them both, that they wanted no one else but each other. And so, they kept their love a secret, even though they both knew that it would not be easy to stay in the shadows forever.

Her subsequent refusal to follow in the established mating rituals of Khera - to procreate with a selected Kheran male once becoming of age, and help sustain an already-low birth rate among their long-lived people, - coupled with her refusal to surrender her high standing as a competent Majestrix in the making for the Coda Sisterhood of warriors, did not help. If she gave birth to a child through the normal birthing rituals, it would compel her to become a priestess, but that would only further strain her standing in Kheran society, seeing as she had been born in the criminally inclined _Adrastea_ class. With her fully trained as a master warrior of the Coda, ready to take the place of the current Majestrix if need be... those facts made her choice for the future very simple.

She would leave her beloved Khera and her former life behind, all for the brave, intelligent, and selfless Protectorate warrior with the emerald-green shining stone embedded in his chest, because HE was her future now. Because she still maintained friendly links to her former life among the high society of Adrastea-caste criminals on Khera - knowing full well that the forbidden love affair between her and Thyrhan would not be allowed to continue - Lady Elysiana of Khera exhausted all the contacts she still had to gather up her most precious possessions, and store them in the hull of a cargo ship she soon used to escape to the island that once was home to the Aegenians before their exodus.

Her arrival there allowed her to join up with Thyrhan in secret, transferring all her cargo containers onto his trusted Protectorate medium-class combat dropship, the '_Dragtyl_,' and allowed her to escape from capture with her beloved without incident. Having few possible options left to them from that point - no other space-faring vessels would take them off-world, - Elysiana gave Thyrhan the bold idea to sneak into the Kheran Naval Yard and attempt to commandeer a recently completed Kheran space cruiser to use in their escape. Taking that vessel would also allow them to safely transport away the remaining number of very well-hidden containers on the former Aegenian refuge that held moderate stores of the mineral that composed the heart of the Justice Stone.

Thanks in part to the civil uprising, many of the normal guards assigned to the docks now had their hands full in dealing with riots and brutal clashes, leaving their two-pronged approach to the docks almost unopposed. Now, here Thyrhan was, in the thick of battle once more, leading a supplied number of skin-tight Nanoflauge stealth-suit equipped Spartan Guards from Elysiana's trusted allies to take control of the docked military cruiser she had been told of through her old business contacts.

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Only a light android dock crew was watching over that particular cruiser in dry-dock when they made their move... much too tempting of a prize for two lovers seeking to escape from an oncoming conflict, especially when they learned what the ship's true class and complement were on the way to the docks. Barrel-rolling tightly in mid-air to dodge away from some automated laser turrets firing at him, Thyrhan swung his emerald green-hued Justice Staff across his chest, cutting loose with an intense energy wave from his linked weapon that smashed into the left flank of the charging androids.

The powerful strike sent them all sprawling, allowing Thyrhan an opening to blast the remaining turrets into scrap one by one. The Spartan Guards with him quickly followed his lead, pushing further toward the military battle-cruiser's unattended main entry doors, their Nanoflauge suits allowing them to stay invisible to any other deterrents that might have tried to stop them. Thyrhan's frontal assault also prevented Elysiana's group from being detected as she snuck aboard the massive vessel with her six-man fire-team through the unguarded cargo bay. Even as his eyes took in the massive lines of the sleek battle cruiser docked before him, its entire bulk having been 'grown' to its completed form in record time, the Justice Stone-wielding warrior shook his head.

'A medium-class cruiser, my foot.' Thyrhan groused as he examined the massive vessel, far larger than many of the regular Kheran naval vessels that he had seen before in his many travels near the capital cities of the planet. Touching down as the Spartan Guards finished off the remaining androids, Thyrhan tapped his left vambrace's recessed beacon, summoning his waiting dropship to decloak and fly over to join them as they boarded the cruiser. The remaining regular dock androids were subdued without incident, and then reprogrammed to obey the commands of both the Spartan Guards and Thyrhan as they wasted no more time and finally commandeered the vessel. Preparations were quickly made on all sides to leave before anyone else could stop them.

Moments after all the ship's outer access ports were locked down tight, Thyrhan and his platoon rejoined Elysiana and her assigned team outside the ship's main data core. With the main sectors of the ship now fully secured, Elysiana informed her husband and his battle squad of an even greater prize than what she had thought they would find. In their insertion into the ship, she and her infiltration fire-team had discovered that the Kheran battle-cruiser they were swiping from her brethren was the latest model in the line of advanced deep space, heavy-grade super battle-cruisers of the Kheran fleet: fully armed, fully stocked, and ready to repel any and all invaders who tried to come and attack Khera.

Its sheer size - nearly four hundred kilometers in length, - had convinced Thyrhan of that fact when he had seen it, but discovering that a full complement of military resources had been already stocked aboard all levels of the cruiser made his mouth water in response to Elysiana's words. She then told him that the battle cruiser's main data hub had been recently redesigned to recognize only TWO command authority figures, as long as the first one to get access to the system was a Kheran of noble blood, with the proper song-based access codes. In that respect, Elysiana was certain that she would fit the bill, and immediately accessed the cruiser's verification systems, her melodious tones filling the data core room as she sang out the orders to the ship's systems.

Within seconds, the cruiser's primary control systems confirmed and acknowledged her as the vessel's permanent ship-master from now on, Elysiana's voice providing the necessary access codes in her harmony moments later. Elysiana quickly ordered the ship's data core to accept Thyrhan as the ship's executive officer, and once that was done, she brought up the ship's cargo manifests on the screens before them. To their shock and awe, the couple's previous findings were proven true: the battle-cruiser had indeed been fully stocked to the gills, and then some. An entire military DIVISION of Spartan Guards had been brought on board as the ship's crew! Ten thousand of the highly advanced and battle-tested Kheran androids were now theirs to command.

As the ship entered them both as its commanders, the command A.I. also informed them that over one thousand of these Spartan Guards on board were quite special among their kind. The battle structures of those selected Guards had been secretly spliced and augmented with the unique DNA of the mighty Shapers caste of Khera, their shape-shifting skills literally turning the androids into even more powerful living weapons against any and all enemies they encountered. Within minutes, Thyrhan had decided to call the newest allies of their battle group the 'Falchion Praetors,' and wisely appointed one hundred of them as Elysiana's personal bodyguards. With that decided, Thyrhan docked his waiting dropship in the ship's hanger bay, made sure that all their acquired resources and supplies were stored and locked down, and then, the couple began their escape aboard their new transport.

Within the hour, the massive ship had arrived above the island that had once housed the Aegenian refugees. With precise sweeps of its tractor beams and active teleporters, every last remnant of Aegenian technology, data reserves, donated Kheran technology and weapons had been pulled aboard the ship and put into storage on board in short order. As the massive Kheran cruiser began its ascent out of the planet's atmosphere, Thyrhan quickly made sure to double-check the Aegenian storage units they had picked up, thanking the stars that the remaining and very well disguised units that contained the symbiotic living mineral were all intact. With that done, Thyrhan then encoded the locking mechanisms and protective measures on the units with his personal encryption key - which he had given to no one on Khera, and were keyed to his Justice Stone, - making the units utterly useless without him.

With the legacy of his home-world safely secured in the ship's cargo bays, Thyrhan rejoined his love on the bridge, and watched with her in his arms as the skies of her home planet changed to that of the stars above it. As they left Khera, Elysiana chose to name the vast battleship that now ferried them, the 'Silver Providence' (in the Kheran language, of course), and together with their new forces, the two lovers and their new ship broke free from Khera's familiar gravity-well for the foreseeable future. Using Thyrhan's impressive aptitude in dimensional physics to safeguard their voyage from harm, they plotted a safe, but untraceable course away from their former home. In addition, Elysiana's procured information about the vast dimensional barrier around their solar system - leading to yet another vast part of the universe, - came into play.

Several military-grade data cores full of priceless historical information, containing the knowledge and technological feats of Khera, were also on board the Providence,... and contained an undeniable reason to pass beyond the barrier, once Elysiana had decoded them on their trip to the dimensional barrier. In the years before the civil war on Kheran, many deep space recon missions had been completed, while also dispatching well-hidden caches of Kheran technology along those paths that could only be found and activated by Kherans of noble birth. Realizing that the data cores' revealed information meant that those resource caches had been dispatched from Khera through a hidden path crafted into the barrier, and directly to a VERY large cache of Kheran technology, Thyrhan and Elysiana smiled at each other as they arrived at the same conclusion.

At the right time, the massive Kheran battle-cruiser performed a hyperspace jump to the dimensional barrier, and began scanning for the stable spatial aperture through its expanse. Within a short period, they had found, and passed through, the hidden aperture in the dimensional barrier, placing them all millions of light-years' travel away from both Aegena and Khera, but only a short decade away from their destination... the Milky Way Galaxy.

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Two short days after their emergence from behind the dimensional barrier, the 'Providence' was met by a six-man team of alien beings, their forms shrouded in glowing green light. Thankfully, both their powers and the cruiser's translation programs were able to interact, and keep things civil between them. The five green and black-clad aliens introduced themselves as members of the Green Lantern Corps, the peace-keepers established by the ancient Guardians of Oa.

Thyrhan and Elysiana identified themselves as members of the Aegenian and Kheran races, and that they had just passed through the dimensional barrier behind them in pursuit of a life away from ongoing civil war. Any aid that the Green Lanterns could give them in making their travel through this vast new region of space would be greatly appreciated. Within the hour, a stealth corvette arrived on scene, ferrying one of the Guardians and six MORE Green Lanterns to meet with Thyrhan and Elysiana. The Guardian welcomed the new arrivals to this side of the universe, and gladly sat down and shared his knowledge of current events with the two lovers.

They, in turn, also told the noble Guardian why they were here, and what they sought to do. The Guardian nodded in turn, although his thoughts were well hidden; he had a very specific reason in mind about why Thyrhan and Elysiana had been able to find their way through that vast dimensional barrier, when entry into it by any other group from this side would have taken a fully powered PLATOON of Green Lanterns to carry out. The cloaked probes had only passed through the barrier because they were machines, and had no life-signs. Their ship had been allowed to pass through the barrier... by something far greater than they realized. Returning to the moment, the generous Guardian passed on a data core of information about this side of the universe, its races, cultures, and languages, which guaranteed that the massive battle-cruiser would be ready for anything that came their way in time.

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Five years after their incredible escape from Khera and its civil war, and the meeting with the Lanterns and their Guardian commander, the 'Silver Providence' and their contingent had their first encounter with another race hell-bent on bending the universe's children to their will through conquest,... namely, the reptilian inhabitants of the planet Gordania. The Gordanians were just beginning to embrace their desire to conquer their region of the galaxy, as well as snatch up any and all new technology they could find along the way. That desire for new tech quickly brought the Gordanians into fierce battle against the lone Kheran battle-cruiser as it passed into Gordanian space, after the shortest path between two jump-points.

The seasoned battle forces of the massive Kheran vessel - and the mighty weapons the ship and its contingent had with them, - quickly turned the Gordanians away again and again with combat tactics that put their own to shame. Before any of the retreating Gordanian vessels could track the Kheran battleship once the battles were over - and attack it again with greater numbers than it had first fought them with, - the Kheran battle-cruiser used its advanced and untraceable cloaking systems to vanish from sight, and continued on its chosen path without any interference from the cursing enemies they had just soundly defeated. Saving its hyperspace engines for when they had finally left the system, it still would not be the only time that the Kheran vessel was encountered.

The 'Providence' happened upon one last, fierce border dispute in-system, between the Gordanians (again!) and one of their neighbors, the winged people of the planet Thanagar, on the other side of their shared borders. That battle was where the present Thanagarian soldiers and their light frigates caught first sight of the Spartan Guards and the Falchion Praetors, and saw Kheran battle technology in action as it routed the Gordanians as easily as it had when the ship had first encountered the reptilian scavengers...

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_Earth Date: April 10th, 1990, on the galactic border between Gordania and Thanagar..._

It seemed like only a few hours had passed since the flotilla of Thanagarian light cruisers had finished their patrol sweep on their border with the despised Gordanians, rather than the three standard galactic weeks since their tour of duty had begun to keep a close eye on their hated enemies. Thankfully, only the occasional border skirmish with the Gordanians had occurred during that time, involving only small but intense conflicts that the Thanagarians had been able to survive, but with no fatalities on either side, and only light injuries of their own to date.

Plus, having the timely arrival of a totally unknown, MASSIVE, but friendly battle-cruiser to the region via hyperspace jump had been a virtual godsend. Right before any Gordanian ships could even attempt to breach the border again, the unknown battle-cruiser had greeted the Thanagarian ships in the intergalactic trade language, and had helped them out immensely in the ensuing clash by warning the Gordanians to leave, OR ELSE. The Gordanians didn't heed the warning, and paid for it. Now, with the battle over and the Gordanians completely routed, their region of space was silent once more.

From the expansive command bridge of the impressive non-aligned military vessel - identified to the grateful Thanagarians after the battle as the 'Silver Providence,' - a silent crew composed of loyal Spartan Guards worked on their consoles, watched over by the single, red and grey-garbed figure seated at the captain's chair above them, reviewing a data sheet on his armrest. Two glowing white eyes could be seen behind the being's dark visor, but its owner was only thinking one thing as he gazed at the Thanagarian vessels holding flanking positions to their starboard side, calming stroking his well-trimmed goatee.

_Where in the **stars** is that comprehensive data packet they promised us?' _ Thyrhan Entehros thought to himself as he checked the console next to him for the time. _'They better not be trying to wring any other intel from their ongoing sensor sweeps of the Providence. Ozar`e will burn all their data cores to electron dust if they try anything underhanded._' Thyrhan noted the time, then finished his thought. _'They've got one more hour; they better not be late, or we'll tan their hides.'_

Turning to one of the nearest Spartan Guards, Thyrhan asked him to send another request for the data packet to the Thanagarians, and to call over to his wife's meditation room to see how she was doing after her latest data retrieval from all the accumulated information that had been stored aboard the ship. Thyrhan wanted to be done with this region of space and on their way as soon as possible. The less they were involved in any further battles, the better.

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The scene abruptly changed back to just the Watcher himself, as he waved his hand again, showing the image of a distant, unmarked planet, far from both Thanagar and Gordania, right before Uatu slowly spoke to the space around him.

**"When the need arises from the innocent,...**

**when aid is fervently pleaded for by the children of Terra,...**

**a warrior born of noble blood will appear, who follows the honorable path of a true warrior against evil,...**

**he will stand firm against hate and destruction,...**

**and he will aid an alliance of light, formed to return order to the universe...**

**as the spirit of freedom bands them all as one."**

Uatu nodded to himself as he paused, his glowing eyes seeming to pierce the heavens in search of something, and then spoke again to the endless expanse before him.

**"Prophecies are ignored at one's peril, and with this new intuition from the heart of the cosmos itself,much is to come from this warrior, who now calls Earth his home, and humanity... his brethren."**

The shifting scene before Uatu once more changed, again showing the massive Kheran combat vessel as it finally got underway, leaving the border and the flotilla of Thanagarian vessels as it headed off, seeking the path laid out to its crew by the will of fate.

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Not long after the forced involvement of the '_Providence'_ in that border skirmish, many of the more war-hardened and entrenched races - again, the Skrull, the Kree, the Shi'ar, and the Chitari, - encountered the Gordanian survivors of the lopsided battles that had been fought against the lone alien vessel and its crew. Knowing full well just how valuable that mighty ship and its owners could be to their cause, the leaders of each alien race quickly ordered their most skilled commanders to seek out and discover its secrets.

The later discovery of the cryptic, prophetic words that had been spoken some time later, uttered by an unconfirmed oracle who claimed no allegiance to any god or race - and then transmitted to each of their own factions by their intelligence agents, - confirmed that this unknown group was no idle threat; the potent warrior it spoke of had to be among those who crewed that ship. Whomever commanded and crewed that mighty vessel, when provoked into battle, were not a force to be taken lightly in any case.

Additionally, if they ever really wanted to, the massive ship and its proven warriors could be a deciding factor in any battle. The mysterious warriors of that vessel alone were described by Gordanian survivors as being able to fight as hard and as fiercely as Green Lanterns and Kryptonian Special Forces, and then some. They would most assuredly be a powerful faction to watch for in the galaxy, but none of the other prominent races in the galaxies even suspected... that such great power would eventually follow the lead of one young, noble, and selfless warrior who walked the path of light without flinching.

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_Earth Date: March 10th, 1995, undisclosed military installation on the planet Thanagar..._

"So, why were WE assigned to review those secret recordings from that lone unidentified warrior? The one who was interviewed on that patrol cruiser, several years back? _Again?_" One Thanagarian soldier said to his compatriot as they headed to the Main Archive division of their facility. The second winged soldier shrugged to his ally as they reached the access panel linked to the blast doors, and the high-level security field guarding the vital and highly protected Archives.

"They probably wanted to double-check the intel from it again; lucky us, huh?" The second officer responded to his cohort. "They also likely want to try and decide exactly where that guy was from, not to mention if they could find out anything more about the type of technology he had with him, and that giant fleet-whupping battle-cruiser he crewed."

"Figures; make _us_ work over-time." The first officer groused back.

After keying in their personal access codes, and having both of their voices and retinal prints verified, the two soldiers watched as the vault doors slid open, right after the security field dissipated, only for them both to close and reactivate again once the two soldiers were inside the vault. As the internal scanning node made sure once more that the two soldiers were in fact, who they were supposed to be, the vault's security program also made sure that no other or hidden recording devices were on their person.

Once the security program was sure that there were no risks for compromising its data, it finally opened the main internal vault doors for the two Thanagarians. As the two soldiers continued into the deep vault, they finally reached one of the active data terminals, seated themselves, and keyed in their access codes again to begin the work assigned to them. The screen before them lit up with a progress bar running a debug mode, and then, it chirped at them with a monotonous voice.

_'State inquiry.'_

"Bring up all recorded data files and relevant intel gathered from the interview with the non-Thanagarian warrior identified as 'Rhoss', done five standard years ago from today." The first soldier stated to the computer before him.

_'Processing... done. Displaying results.'_ The computer responded as it began its task.

In seconds, the requested data appeared on the screen, and the two Thanagarian soldiers painstakingly began to review all the available audio recordings, visual records, and even the hidden military scanners that had attempted to scan and decipher anything about the uniform and locked-down armor-suit that this 'Rhoss' had been wearing when he had come aboard, and during the interview / 'interrogation' conducted by one of the top Admirals of the Thanagarian military.

Although the main data records from the visual and audio receivers were perfectly clear, the disguised scanners had been unable to discern absolutely anything about the individual's personal weapons and unique specifications in any area. The only thing that the sensors had been certain about in their evaluations of 'Rhoss' was a variance in his personal bio-metrics: his body had put out a low-level energy field around his body, and its exact location or origin could not be pinned down.

Despite his appearance, the calm mannerisms presented to them by 'Rhoss' made the Admiral believe that this calm warrior from the alien vessel near them was actually far more clever than he looked. Beyond aiding the Thanagarians in their fight against the Gordanians, the only other fact the Admiral was privy to was that 'Rhoss', his crew, and his ship had only stopped in their system for a brief rest before resuming their current voyage, and to come into range of a large cluster of asteroids to mine and gather raw materials and resources for later use.

After 'Rhoss' had completed his 'interview' with the Admiral, he thanked the Thanagarian military officers for speaking with them, and had gone to briefly enjoy the company of the ship's crew in celebrating their victory over the Gordanian raiders. After some time had passed, the calm warrior boarded his combat dropship, his four silent 'Spartan Guards' following his lead, and let the humming sound of the powerful combat vessel fill the hangar as it powered up, then silently departed from the frigate hangar bay to return to the waiting battle-cruiser it had come from. Minutes later, the mighty vessel turned away, powering its main engines, and headed away from the border on its original path.

Pausing in their reviews, the two soldiers finally leaned back in their chairs, catching a breather while removing their helmets and rubbing their eyes, and remarking on their progress to one another.

"Nothing; not a cursed thing more than we already knew." The second soldier groused.

"Yep, no clues whatsoever on my end, either." The first soldier said to his comrade. "Only that a reappearance of that ship, and that crew, in this side of the galaxy, would be very telling."

A star map lit up on their terminals at the first soldier's response, scrolling across systems far and wide, until finally coming to rest on one spiral galaxy in particular, far from their own home-system, while slim indicators pointed to one solar system in particular.

"Long range patrol scans that were generously supplied to us from the Lantern Corps not too long ago, say that a race of upright bipeds that are up and coming in the galaxy live here." The first Thanagarian spoke, staring at the star map. "If the last recorded heading received from our long-range outposts two days after that dust-up were spot-on, then that system was most likely in the direct path of where that battle cruiser was headed."

"Also says here, that the bipeds now call their region of space, the 'Milky Way Galaxy,' and in this 'Sol' system, they all live on the third planet from their yellow star." The second soldier followed up.

"What do they call their world?" The first soldier queried.

"Rather plain, if you ask me,... _Earth_." The second Thanagarian replied.

Presently, the audio-visual comm system came alive nearby the two tired soldiers, indicating that they were receiving a call from their immediate superiors. They quickly answered the call, standing up and saluting their commander as the call came in.

"Attention!" The two soldiers said as one.

"At ease, soldiers." The growling tone of a General replied to their answer. "What news on the data review from the recordings of that warrior, 'Rhoss,' and his unknown faction?"

"Our apologies, General, but the hidden encrypted viewers were simply unable to discern or quantify anything about him." The first soldier carefully answered his commander. "It was as if the person himself simply refused to allow any part of his frame, or his weapons - if he had any on him at the time - to be scanned in any way."

"Disappointing, men, but not unexpected." The General replied to his men. "This gives even more credit to the rumors that the weapons we saw on that ship are indeed powerful on their own; in their hands, they are capable of ending almost any conflict they come across. Those silent ones who traveled with him, then, are likely worthy of being named among the greatest warriors in the cosmos."

"What are our orders now, sir?" The second solider queried.

"Resume your normal duties, men, and mention none of this to any of your comrades. Your division superiors have already been informed not to ask why we asked you two to work on this." The General commented, looking at a screen next to himself. "Otherwise, make sure to inform all your comrades to remain on the look-out for any ongoing changes in our 'interactions' with the Gordanians. These last few encounters have all our military listening posts on high alert."

"Understandable, sir." The first soldier answered.

"They've been even more restless than usual over the past few years, sir, and I know that Central Command is in no mood to be caught with our wings folded up if they try anything." The second soldier agreed with his comrade.

"Exactly, men. That is all. Command, out." The General finished as the comm channel went silent.

"Understood, sir. On our way, over and out." The first soldier said to himself as he nodded to his comrade.

"Acknowledged, my friend." The second one agreed as they powered down the console, and headed out of the archives.

End Chapter One

XXXXXX

_A path chosen, by warriors from two different worlds..._

_A child's birth to come, growing up to wield his powers against darkness..._

_A search ending, with a new world found to call... HOME..._

Comments welcome, and I'll see you all in Chapter Two!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer (once more):

X-Men: Evolution, the Avengers, and all Marvel characters are property of Marvel Comics.

Superman, the Justice League, and all DC characters (now including all the races, characters, and technology of Image/Wildstorm Comics) are the property of DC Comics (save for my own OCs, of course.)

XXXXXX

Chapter Two: Arrivals and Discoveries Among the Orbits

* * *

_Earth Date: September 2, 1998..._

_A few years after the Gordania-Thangarian border dispute that was joined by the 'Silver Providence'..._

The lone Kheran super battle-cruiser carrying its refugee couple from Khera and Aegena had finally reached the outskirts of the Milky Way Galaxy, picking up on the continuous spatial beacon of the mighty Kryptonian World-Gate coming from the Sol system. Sensing that this was their long-awaited signal, at last appearing to lead them to their new home after traveling in deep space for so many long years, the 'Providence' corrected its course and continued on into the system, eventually focusing its long-range scans on the blue-green, life-sustaining third planet from the relatively young yellow star at the heart of the system,... EARTH.

However, along the way, whispers and myths were heard and passed around by many races of the vast galaxies beyond the Sol system, who happened upon intel of the lone vessel and its past appearances. They began their own investigations into what, and who, were piloting that mighty ship, and why they held no allegiances to any other faction but itself. That, however, was child's play to what had happened to the crew of the 'Providence' in the five years leading up to its arrival in the Sol system, but none so important as the gift given to Thyrhan and Elysiana...

XXXXXX

_Earth Date: September 5, 1994..._

"EEEEYYYYAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!"

The fearsome scream of pain that came from the infirmary bay of the mighty _'Providence' _ echoed through its halls, even as the Spartan Guards and Falchion Praetors keeping watch and assisting its owner awaited the arrival of the patient's spouse. Clad in medical robes and keeping a close eye on heart rate, blood pressure, and the smooth flow of necessary fluids to the patient, the medically programmed androids did their due diligence in aiding the patient before them... especially since it was the person who had helped commandeer the great vessel in the first place.

"AAAHHHHHH! WHERE!?" Lady Elysiana, deep in the contractions of her first offspring, shouted out as the Spartan Guard/Doctor to her side held her hand as her pregnancy neared its end. "Where on KHERA is that husband of mine!?" The Doctor shook his head in resignation, letting the pregnant Kheran noblewoman voice her displeasure at both her pain, and at how her spouse was not here with here yet. Suddenly, the hiss of the infirmary's doors was heard, and Thyrhan Enterhos rushed in, his dealings with the latest space obstacle in their path finally done as he came to his wife's side.

"Forgive me, Elly...!" Thyrhan soothed his pregnant wife with his loving nickname for her, gently cupping her face in his hands as he kissed her, their powerful empathic bond echoing across their minds as he took his place by her. "... Those slippery Chitauri bastards simply did not know when to get out of our way, my love, or to leave us in peace." Elysiana nodded, even as the pain struck her again, causing both her and Thyrhan to wince in tandem with one another as the considerable discomfort flowed between them.

The simple act of Thyrhan being there with her allowed Elysiana to finally pass some of her pain to her husband. When she had found out that she was finally with child - after they had been formally wed in the proper Kheran rites and true Aegenian ways on the ship, - Elysiana promptly informed her husband of how Kheran empaths such as her would share both their joy and their pain with their mates through a forming empathic bond, and Thyrhan did not hesitate in any way to share in that burden with her. His emerald-green Justice Stone glowed in tandem with his stark white eyes as he accepted his measure of her pain from his pregnant wife, while the next set of her contractions assaulted her form.

"Didn't that... Green Lantern fellow... send them _packing_!?" Elysiana cried out, gripping her husband's hand with her fierce strength as she bore down and ORDERED her breathing to stay at an even tempo. Her husband grimaced with her before replying.

"Lantern Jordan DID send them on their way, Elly." Thyrhan said, his gloved hand gently brushing his wife's sweat-soaked light purple hair off her brow. "They just tried to sneak back in-system and assault us again, and so, the Spartan Guards and I quickly showed them how utterly STUPID it was for them to try and bother us any further. That's when Lantern Jordan returned to the fray, and made SURE that they got the hell away from us, before HE got mad."

Elysiana nodded, her own hand gently gripping the back of her love's head with one hand as she kissed him again with great fervor. "As long as they are gone from our site, 'Rhan, because Hecate be MERCIFUL, but I need you here now." As his wife used her own personal nickname for him, Thyrhan nodded back at her, reassuring her with all the strength he could send her through their bond.

"Yes, they are gone, my love; the Guards have the Conn, and they have reported that the celestial skies before us are clear." Thyrhan said, again sharing her burden of pain with their empathic bond. "Now, then, what say you and I welcome our little one to the universe, so that he can see its wonders?"

Elysiana wearily smiled at her husband. "You still need to tell me later just HOW you knew our child was a boy, 'Rhan." Thyrhan just winked back at his wife.

"AFTER our son is born, my love." The Protectorate soldier said as she quickly accepted medical garb from a Spartan Guard/Medical attendant, and pulled it over his uniform. "After."

XXXXXX

_Two hours later..._

As Elysiana's rapid breathing finally began to calm down, the Spartan Guard/Doctor formerly positioned below her feet rose up, now gently cradling her infant son in his arms. The well-formed child bawled at his new surroundings and at how he had arrived, but the Spartan Guard paid the child's cries no mind beyond wiping his face. Quickly, the child was placed into the receiving basin, and was gently wiped clean of fluids and passed blood before his umbilical cord was clamped off and cut free of his body.

Another Spartan Guard had already moved to attend Elysiana, gently clearing her lower torso of the afterbirth and the fluids that had once held her firstborn child within her before lowering her legs out of the birthing ramps, calmly covering her up once more before bowing to her and moving away from her bed. Moments later, to both her and Thyrhan's teary eyes, their son was slowly presented to them by the Spartan Guard/Doctor. Wrapped in calming clothes bearing Elysiana's Coda crest, and his father's uniform colors, the medically inclined android laid the infant into Elysiana's arms for them both to see.

"Our deepest congratulations to you, Lady Elysiana, and to you, Officer Enterhos." The medical garb-wrapped Spartan Guard spoke to his two commanding officers. "Your son's physical appearance is unblemished, and as we discussed two weeks earlier, his genetic structures are all at optimal levels for his unique heritages." Elysiana nodded wearily at the android physician, and Thyrhan mouthed his thanks to the android before it moved away to record the day's events in the ship's medical database.

The two new parents looked upon their firstborn child, seeing his scrunched-up face as he let out short wails, still coming to grips with his new environment, and how there was a very light dusting of ash-gray and black-streaked hair on his head. Clearly, he shared much from both of his parents' genetic line. Even as his little arms and legs tried to stretch, push, pull, and explore underneath his wrappings, Elysiana and Thyrhan could already feel the strong empathic bonds beginning to form between them and their new son. Their tears flowed freely as the two star-crossed lovers smiled at each other.

"He's so _beautiful_, Elly..." Thyrhan murmured to his wife, his smile growing as one of his son's hands found its way clear of the wrappings around him, and its tiny fingers gripped the gloved thumb of his proud father with a firm grasp. "He will be a strong young man when he grows up; there's no doubt about it." Elysiana nodded, her own eyes dripping with tears as she looked down at her firstborn.

"Yes,... yes, he will, 'Rhan." She finally said, kissing her son on the forehead, which amazingly began to calm him down. Seeing that, Thyrhan chuckled.

"Well, my love?" He said to her, brushing through her hair as he held his wife and his child with a gentle embrace by her bedside. "What shall we name our child this day?" Elysiana looked at Thyrhan, and smiled.

"A compromise is in order, my husband." She replied. "You've already mentioned the name 'Rhen' to me, and I've spoken of the name 'Jysar' to you, one of my ancestors." Thyrhan arched an eyebrow at that, but Elysiana continued on. "Jysar's legacy to my family was that of true nobility, one of the most noble of Kherubim High Lords in our history, and you've said that Rhen himself was one of the most caring members of your own family."

"Yes, I remember, Elly." Thyrhan replied. "So, what did you have in mind, my violet minx?" Chuckling at Thyrhan's playful moniker given to her due to the color of her locks, Elysiana answered back.

"Our son, my love,... his name shall be, 'Jysarhen,' and those who come to know him will call him a passionate noble lord, who cares for the freedom and justice of all sentient beings." Hearing Elly's idea, Thyrhan smiled back at his wife before kissing her.

"That's a wonderful idea, my love; so be it, then." Gently lifting up their son from her arms, Thyrhan held him up before their eyes, just as his own father had done so long ago. "Our son: Jysarhen Enterhos, born of Khera and Aegena. May the fates bless his existence from this day forward, and may the Justice Stone and Staff that he will bear one day light the way for his strength and nobility to shine throughout the _cosmos_." With that settled, the two parents resumed simply holding their infant son together,... their family one person stronger than before.

No one there on that ship, not in the infirmary with the family and their new addition, nor among the thousands of Spartan Guards and Falchion Praetors manning the stations of the mighty vessel, could have even known that down the road, one of the youngest female military officers in the Thanagarian Special Forces would one day meet the well-grown and highly skilled son of Thyrhan and Elysiana, himself now a formidable combatant and tactician in his own right...

XXXXXX

_Earth Date: August 18, 2000, undisclosed location in space..._

_On an unmarked Thanagarian light cruiser..._

Lying in a spacious master bed, her lower form covered by warm bed-sheets, the half-naked form of a female Thanagarian officer slowly began to wake up from the earlier hours of victory celebration over a party of raiding Gordanian corvettes. Her long blonde tresses gently fell away to the sides of her head as she slightly pulled herself up, just enough to stretch out her lovely feathered wings on her back, before gently falling back into her pillow. Her intense memories of the previous hours were beginning to filter back into focus, as were the pleasurable number of blissful couplings she had enjoyed with the young, but bold second in command of the unknown battle-cruiser.

As she was again recalling his face in her mind, the Thanagarian woman realized that she was alone in the bed, and was about to call out for him as her hand brushed against the empty pillow beside her. Her military-issued Universal Translator, lying on the evening bench, but still close enough to catch her words, echoed out into the room as she finally looked over her left shoulder.

"Jager?" She stated wistfully. "Where are _you_?"

"Admiring the view, my lovely flying beauty." A male voice answered back to her.

When that strong voice reached her ears, the female Thanagarian officer - Corporal Khrenna Rheth, an accomplished soldier and scout for her people, - looked over her right shoulder, and saw the solid and well-formed build of her bedmate, just as he fully stepped out of the bathing alcove, a light dapping of purified water on his body.

The thin coating of mist on his toned muscles, and across the intricate tattoos on his left pectoral muscles and shoulder, crossing his chest like a wave - all slowly flowing out from the iris-sealed orb seamlessly embedded into his chest, - made him look all that more appealing to Khrenna, especially since he was only wearing a waist-length garment over his lower regions. Khrenna smiled as she looked him over, remembering full well his impressive naked glory that had spent the last few hours in bed with the Thanagarian woman.

Somehow, the Thanagarian officer knew that this 'Jager' was more than just a regular humanoid being. He appeared to be in his late teens to early twenties, but the closest thing she had seen that even looked like him in her military career were long-range security scans of a small planet called Earth, in the faraway Sol system, with a race of normal humanoid bipeds inhabiting it. Khrenna also knew that those humans on Earth DID NOT have space-faring capabilities of the caliber that 'Jager' had access to.

The advanced weapons technology and sheer firepower alone that the vessel he had traveled on, revealed to them upon arriving to aid them in the asteroid belt dispute with the Gordanians, had been more than enough to prompt her superiors to request immediate, but reasonable terms for an in-depth exchange of information and technology. The seated commander of the _'Silver Providence'_ had politely, but firmly declined to do so, but had agreed to send a few of their crew to meet with the Thanagarians to establish proper greetings and communication protocols, especially to procure greater information about the current galactic situation and the 'Galactic Confederacy' that the Thanagarians had mentioned after the battle, along with the vessel's very competent executive officer - 'Jager.'

At the 'meeting' held shortly after to discuss travel plans and galactic phenomenon between the two races, the young XO had remained completely aware that the Thanagarians wanted more from him that what he was willing to give, but Jager kept them on point, and after that, he had gladly joined them at a celebration gala put on by the younger officers. Sly glances had led to pleasant words between him and Khrenna at the gala, and before they had truly realized it, they had secretly retired to her personal quarters. Their armor, weapons, clothes, and inhibitions were cast aside, leaving them both to simply get lost in passion and desire in seconds, lasting throughout the last few hours that had passed in her quarters.

"'Admiring the view,' huh?" Khrenna quipped.

"Yep." Jager replied, tossing the towel on his shoulders back into the bathing alcove as he remained standing there. The young XO gestured toward the bed that Khrenna was lying in, prompting her to look behind herself to see that the bed sheets had fallen down her curves to her calves, leaving the rest of her naked, toned form bare to the air, and allowing Jager's eyes to follow the ample curves of her posterior with glee. Smiling slyly to herself as she pulled a pillow under her bared breasts as she faced her lover, giving him an even better view of her hips, Khrenna replied with a devious grin.

"Liking what you see, Jager?" She asked.

"_Loving _what I see, Corporal." Jager replied. "I've still got two hours left before I need to report back in with my CO. Care to fool around some more?" He grinned as he finished speaking.

At that, Khrenna got off the bed, her naked and sumptuous form sashaying over toward Jager, padding softly on her bare feet, and with her wings curled up in a sexy pose behind her. She soon stood before him for only a moment before hooking her fingers onto his waistcloth with a wide smile. "What do YOU think?" Jager just smiled at that statement from Khrenna before he snared her lips with a heated kiss, deepening it by taking her into his arms. The loose garment slid down Jager's legs moments later, and the passion began anew.

XXXXXX

An hour and twenty minutes later, now showered and dressed in his uniform, Jager was walking back to the landing bay of the Thanagarian cruiser, a slim black case under his arm, and still being escorted by Corporal Rheth. When they were sure that no one was in the hallway as they walked, the two would steal glances at each other, and quickly hold hands for a few moments before letting go when they heard someone approaching.

In wartime, soldiers found and took peaceful, caring moments of solace whenever they could, and both Jager and Khrenna knew this all too well. Any other place, they would most likely pursue a relationship gladly, but for now, their intense couplings earlier on would just have to suffice.

Arriving at the hangar bay, Jager and Khrenna walked over to his waiting combat dropship - the _'Dragtyl',_ he called it, - under watch by both two Thanagarian Special Forces officers, their Nth Metal weapons at their sides, and four Falchion Praetors by the closed entryway, their purple and red combat uniforms flat against their emotionless faces. Greeting her calm colleagues, Khrenna waved them off as Jager thanked them for watching over his ship, before commanding the waiting Praetors to fire up the ship and prepare for departure.

As the four Praetors moved off, Jager led Khrenna a few steps up onto the opening back doors of the dropship, out of the view of anyone nearby, and of the hangar bay's security sensors. Khrenna took the hint, and roughly shoved Jager against the inner wall of the combat dropship, her lips finding his, losing herself in his strong embrace while he groped her backside in kind. After a few minutes of intense lip-locking and groping, Jager and Khrenna finally let each other go, looking into each other's eyes with silent words that they both meant to each other...

_'I wish we had more time.'_

Nodding back to one another, they hugged once more, and then parted as Khrenna headed back down to return to the hangar bay, and Jager closed the hatch after his four Praetors were on board, prepping for launch back to the waiting _'Providence'_ in the distance. Minutes later, Jager's dropship had returned to the cruiser waiting in orbit for him, and both it and the Thanagarian ships began to head home in different directions.

Jager was soon back on the bridge as the _'Dragtyl'_ was refueled and recharged, greeting his commander (and father) before resuming his XO duties, even as the Commander stood up from his command chair and walked over to his son, wordlessly invoking a mental conversation with his son,... courtesy of Jager's psionic link with his father.

'Enjoyed yourself, did you, son?' Thyrhan inquired.

'You could say that, Father.' Jager sheepishly grinned as he answered his father's mental question. 'It was something we both needed to do, and as for enjoying it,... yeah, she was AMAZING.'

'I was just about to call the Praetors, and tell them to haul your rear back to the ship, son.' Thyrhan replied. 'Glad to see I didn't have to make them interrupt you two.'

'Gee, thanks, Father.' Jysarhen mentally groused back to his parent, scowling as he looked out the bridge's main screen toward the stars that awaited them.

Thyrhan chuckled at those mental words from his son. Ever since the time-dilation effects of deep space travel had begun to be seen by him and Elysiana - that their son was growing up so fast, literally aging three years for every year of life that passed on the ship since his birth, - he had consumed knowledge and training from both of his parents like a ravenous animal, but Jysarhen made it all a part of his very being, and his parents beamed at his progress. Physically now around eighteen years old, the firstborn son of Thyrhan and Elysiana had the mental sharpness and tactical skills to lead platoons of Spartan Guards with ease.

The infusion of his son's own well-calibrated Justice Stone and Staff, on what would have been his twelfth birthday on the ship, made Thyrhan all the more proud of his growing son: seeing him gladly accept his Aegenian heritage, especially when the Protectorate scientist had later discovered that the ambient and still-growing energies of the Stone now part of his son were far more potent than his own. Those energies were now actually empowering the latent Kheran genes from his mother to mature and grow far stronger than they would have been without it, likely granting his son full Kherubim Lord power levels later in life, and the longevity of his Kheran heritage to boot.

His wife's idea to merge a protective iris casing over Jysarhen's Justice Stone, designed using the best that Kheran technology had to offer, had made his son's battle profile all the more imposing. His own fighting style, a seamless and adapting form channeled from his mother's Coda teachings and his father's Protectorate training, had become more than capable of handling any threat to his life, and now, Jysarhen functioned as the ship's XO when his mother was meditating and recording her intuitions in her personal chamber. As they had known the day he was born, Jysarhen's future was going to be huge.

'From what we heard on the way here, son, Thanagarian women usually are; you lucky soul, you.' Thyrhan stated in return as he looked over at a console being worked on by a Falchion Praetor. 'Too bad we're moving out of this region toward the nearest asteroid field for mining purposes, and that I'm committed to your mother. She'd have my innards for lunch if I strayed.'

'At the least, Father.' Jager replied, an amused smile on his face at his father's joke. 'I'd love to invite her along, but with how things are looking around this region, between Thanagar, and those... bloodthirsty reptiles, we'd be dragged into a fight that might never end, even with our advantages.'

'She has her mission, son; we have ours.' Thyrhan replied, resting his hand on his grown child's shoulder. 'One can only hope we might come this way again, though, someday.'

'Yeah, but I'm going to miss her, I think, especially with the parting gift she gave me.' Jager thought, remembering the metal case with the twin Nth Metal gladius-type short swords Khrenna had given to him before leaving him on the dropship. 'Having those new weapons with me will help me handle one of my major blind spots.'

'Indeed, son.' Thyrhan replied. 'Magic is powerful, and if it is used on the side of good, it is a mighty ally. Plus, the memorable people you encounter in your lifetime stay with you, son. Always.'

'That they do, Father.' Jager agreed. 'That they do.'

"Commander? XO Enterhos?" A Spartan Guard said to them as the android stepped up to the command level with them. "Hyperspace drive primed and ready for FTL jump, sir. Maintain course?"

"Yes, helmsman." Thyrhan stated. "That spatial beacon-pulse from that Kryptonian 'World-Gate' mentioned by the Lantern Corps, leads further into a nine-planet solar system, all orbiting a yellow star of a very young age. The third planet from the sun is inhabited, with a large variety of life-forms, and a humanoid species to boot."

"Sounds like we're in the right galaxy." Jysarhen replied.

"More than we could have known, son." Thyrhan answered, showing his son a holographic map of several FTL voyages, around and through the indicated system. "From what your mother told us recently, there have been several Kheran exploration patrols throughout this region over six centuries ago, and more than likely, there are hidden remnants of Kheran technology still in the vicinity. If I had to hazard a guess, Jy, that asteroid belt between the large gas giant and the red fourth planet would be my choice to hide all that tech."

"Those remnants HAVE to be found, Father! The people of Earth are not ready to have access to that level of advanced technology, let alone the weaponry that could be there!" Jysarhen replied, to which his father nodded as well.

"They will be, son. They will be." The Protectorate warrior clapped his son on the shoulder. "Let's get a move on, Jy. There is work to be done yet on our voyage."

"Right with you, Father." 'Jy' replied. "Spartan Guards! Lay in our course, and engage!"

"YES, SIR!" The assembled combat androids all answered as one, before attending their consoles and moving the Kheran battle-cruiser back on track to their intended destination,... a little blue-green gem of a world, named Earth.

XXXXXX

_Earth Date: September 2, 2000, in Lady Elysiana's meditation chamber..._

"You are _certain_ of this, my love?" Thyrhan inquired to his wife as her hands danced across the holographic data field, her voice singing out harmonious melodies between her searches into the latest military data core she had accessed during their voyage. Jysarhen stood nearby his parents, also curious of what had just been discovered by his mentor-mother.

"Yeah, Mother; sounds like a ruse to me." Jy's comment garnered him a frowning glare from his mother, to which he quickly replied to the former Majestrix-in-waiting. "O-Kay; shutting up, now."

"Easy, Elly." Thyrhan soothed to his wife. "No need to give the boy the death mark before dinner." Elysiana smiled at her husband in return.

"Would I do a thing like that?" She said, watching as the mouths of both her spouse and her son dropped wide open at her statement. They both then gave her the 'you-want-me-to-answer that?' look. "Fine, fine; you're both off the hook. Now, look at this." Elysiana then tapped a few keys before moving to the center of her chamber, and pointing at a pair of star locations.

"Son? What do you see there?" Thyrhan asked, to which his son squinted as he studied the astral charts before responding.

"I know I'm not _that_ rusty, Father..." Jy began. "... but, it looks like the star map of Khera is on the left, and on the right,... is an _identical_ one, right down to the satellites around the first Khera." To that, Elysiana began clapping to her son.

"Top marks, Jysarhen." She said, gently spiralling the two maps so that they lined up on a perfect elliptical arc, but remained divided by a thin white line. "They _are_ identical, which means that our Khera is not the original home world of our people. This archive proves that our world is only _one_ of many world colonies Kherans have built across the universe." Both father and son gasped.

"_Other worlds_..." Thyrhan started.

"_Trillions_ of other Kherans..." Jy finished, followed by his mother.

"Our Khera was unique because of the comet,..." Elysiana stated, bringing up the flying object on a secondary screen. "... _and_ the astral gate within it, linked to the pocket galaxy that holds Aegena. Clearly, the powers of the universe wanted to keep Aegena **out** of galactic conflicts." Thyrhan nodded.

"In comparison to the Kree, the Shi'ar, the Chitauri, and the Skrulls,..." The Protectorate warrior spoke to his wife and son. "... a fully trained Aegenian, equipped with a correctly calibrated Justice Stone and Staff, regardless of their faction, could lay **waste** to enemy battalions with ease, without the need for any other armaments or even conventional combat vehicles." Jy nodded, before his intuition kicked him in the head.

"Mother, Father,..." He slowly began. "... The whole of the Aegenian people, and our Kheran colony world, by extension, was _intentionally_ kept out of the major galactic conflicts of the last hundred millenia." Thyrhan and Elysiana both slowly nodded.

"Jy is right, Elly." Thyrhan said as he recalled all that they had learned from the ship's archives over the course of their journey. "Had we been fighting all this time, many of our colony worlds very likely would still be fighting to this day." The former Majestrix nodded.

"Someone very, very powerful, and fully aware of what Aegenians could do, wanted them to remain safe, for when they would be needed." Elysiana replied. "And, they entrusted a colony of Khera to keep them protected from all those who would do them any harm."

"Soulmates indeed, Elly." Thyrhan said as he hugged his wife. "The cosmos knew we would find one another, and that we would take flight to prepare the way for both our people." Elysiana nuzzled into her husband.

"No complaints here, 'Rhan." She said, her eyes looking up at her husband, while her son turned his head away from them. He knew _that_ stance of theirs.

"I'll be on the bridge! Bye!" Jy hustled out of the meditation chamber, while Thyrhan and Elysiana deepened their embrace with a passionate kiss. 'Always wondered where our boy got his intuition.' Thyrhan mentally chuckled as he picked up his wife, and headed for their bedchamber.

XXXXXX

_Earth Date: November 3, 2000, floating just outside the orbital path of Neptune..._

The bridge crew of the _'Providence' _ remained silent as they went about their tasks, only speaking when they needed to directly confer intel and data records to one another. Sitting in the command chair, Lady Elysiana, dressed in her Coda formal robes, her Clef Blades at her side, watched her troops work, her face blank, but her mind was racing as it always did. Two months had passed since they had fended off the latest unwanted enemy incursion toward them,... but they had not been able to avoid a serious blow to their morale that came after.

Elysiana remained stoic at the command level, even as her mind and body stifled a sob in its tracks at what had befallen her beloved husband. As Thyrhan and his Spartan Guards were running off the last of a rogue Shi'ar raiding party a short time ago, one of the enemy ships had fired their lasers at the same time that Thyrhan was dispersing a salvo of projectiles with his fighter wing's help. The detonation was repelled without a problem, but there had been something UNKNOWN, an unidentified element of some sort in that region of space, that had interacted strangely with Thyrhan's own space fighter's energy emissions, and that was not good.

Sensing a possible overload, Thyrhan had quickly ejected from his ship, his Justice Stone flaring to life as he summoned his Staff from it, gripping it and surrounding himself with his personal life-sustaining energy field in a heartbeat. But, before he could get completely clear, the ship detonated in space, and the unknown article in that area did SOMETHING to the explosion, causing it to badly injure Thyrhan. The released energies were repulsed by the personal energy shield of the Protectorate warrior, but his Justice Stone let out a weird tone, and Thyrhan promptly doubled over in pain. Even as the pain seized his chest, he depressed his emergency teleport unit, and vanished from space!

Thyrhan reappeared in the infirmary seconds later, where his body landed, and his voice let out a strangled howl of agony. The medical androids quickly attended to him, and within seconds, they knew exactly what had happened. A veritable tear in space-time had occurred, hidden within the explosion, and the resulting temporal and spatial shockwave had struck Thyrhan's Justice Stone, cracking its molecular structure due to it not being calibrated to withstand such an exposure to exotic elements. Elysiana and Jysarhen had wasted no time in getting Thyrhan into a stasis unit to keep him from deteriorating any further.

A week after that, Thyrhan was able to use Kheran technology to inscribe almost all his knowledge of the Justice Stone and Staff into the ship's most secure databases. One day, he promised both his son and his wife, he would be able to leave the stasis unit and be with them once more. But, for now, by using directed harmonic wavelengths to keep his Stone from degrading further while he was in the stasis unit, Thyrhan would be fine. He could still communicate with them through the stasis unit's memory crystal, but he would need a long stasis sleep to start off his treatment. Then, over the next few years, he would begin working with a few Spartan Guards to fully restore his Stone. Teary-eyed, Jysarhen vehemently promised his father that he would protect his mother from harm, until his father was with them again.

Shaking herself out of her memory, Elysiana summoned her son, who had been reading a holographic readout with one of the Spartan Guards, double-checking their flight course into the system before them, and the detection of an unidentified, and alien, detection system a few planets in.

XXXXXX

"What do you make of them, XO?" Elysiana asked her son, now second-in-command with his father now asleep in his stasis chamber. Jy double-checked his own console, and the previous read-out, before commenting on the deep space scanners they were now viewing.

"Deep space recon scanners, for sure, Lady Majestrix." Jy replied, using the agreed-upon rank he and his mother had thought up so that he wouldn't be using her name all the time. "Judging from our readings, it's safe to say that they were placed here by the inhabitants of the fourth planet, many decades ago, and for the express purpose of detecting any returning Chitauri incursions."

"I see." Elysiana replied. "How many came through before then?"

"Two, Lady Majestrix." Jy answered. "Both were repelled, but from what our own long range scans are showing now, the first one likely wiped out the civilization on the red planet before its automated defenses finally sent them packing. The second incursion was small enough that the humanoid species on the third planet was able to repel them with a primitive thermonuclear device."

"Points for them both, then." Elysiana replied. "Back to business, then; any luck in finding the hidden cache that we came here to claim?" Jy smiled, turning a star map holograph for his mother to see.

"The asteroid belt, Lady Majestrix." Jy pointed at a region of space, devoid of heavy debris, but clear enough to remain perfectly within the fourth planet's gravity field. "We've picked up several Kheran-type power signatures in this region: cloaking fields, maneuvering thruster bursts, and life-support, to name a few." Jy then zoomed in on one particular image. "This, however, caught my eye the most, Lady Majestrix. I'm sure _you_ know it."

Elysiana stood to her feet, striding to the viewing window, her eyes locked on the rocky landscape around the area her son had found, and focused on the perfectly formed, uncolored Kheran crest dug out on several of those free-floating asteroids. The crest was unmistakable to her; it was the mark of one of her ancient ancestors,... and the founder of their Kheran colony world.

"Lord Absolitahn's crest... my _family's_ ancient crest..." She murmured, even as her son joined her at the viewing window. "He was _here_, Jysarhen... our family was here, so long ago..." Jy nodded.

"And, he left us the means to begin a new life here, Mother." Jy gently rubbed his mother's shoulders, even as the nearest Spartan Guard brought up the cloaked, but now-revealed dwarf planet before them. Large enough for even the _Providence' _ to fit in its dry-dock, the resources within that concealed artificial planet likely boggled the mind, and now, Absolitahn's descendants had come to reclaim themselves. "Go ahead, Mother." Elysiana nodded.

"Open secure channel." Elysiana instructed. The Spartan Guard nearby compiled, and moments later, Elysiana began to sing out her personal security tones, handed down to only her family for generations. Jy closed his eyes and listened; even when singing to the great battle-cruiser, Elysiana's voice was like a seamless choir, filling the room and putting him at ease. A minute after Elysiana finished singing, the screen lit up with a view over a large hangar within the dwarf planet, filled with Spartan Guards. One of them, with a purple vest, black hair, and a dark black goatee on his face, bowed to Elysiana and Jysarhen, followed by all the others.

"On behalf of all my fellow Spartan Guards, and in the name of Khera's ancestors, I bid you all a warm welcome to Outpost Omega-117, Lady Elysiana, Majestrix Alto of Khera, descendant of Honored Lord Absolitahn himself, and inheritor of his legacy." The bearded Spartan Guard spoke. "I am Spartan Guard Centaros. In Khera's name, we pledge our knowledge and skills to your service. We are at your disposal." At that, Jysarhen took his mother's hand, smiling at her as she answered the words of the bearded android.

"We wholeheartedly accept your pledge." She said. "Request permission to dock."

"With open arms, permission granted." Centaros replied. "Welcome to your new home."

End Chapter Two

XXXXXX

_The end of a long journey at last..._

_New allies and great knowledge pass into their hands..._

_The next chapter of their lives begins..._

Comments welcome; chapter three is in the works!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer (yes, again):

X-Men: Evolution and all Marvel characters - property of Marvel Comics.

Superman and all DC characters (now including the characters, races, and technology depicted in Image/Wildstorm Comics) - the property of DC Comics.

I hope you all enjoy the latest fruits of my mind.

* * *

Chapter Three: First Impressions

XXXXXX

_Earth Date: September 11, 2001, in the confines of the hidden Kheran outpost, Omega-117..._

_In orbit between the planet Mars and the adjacent asteroid belt..._

It had started off as a normal day for the sizable Kheran complement living aboard the well-concealed dwarf planet, and their newest residents. Lady Elysiana and Jysarhen had quickly adjusted to being housed in the outpost in the past year since their arrival in the Sol system. The former Majestrix Alto happily realized that her son would no longer be subjected to the rapid aging he had experienced due to time-dilation effects, during their long journey to the outpost, and could now 'grow up' regularly.

Jy, however, had seen his mother smile again at long last, when his father, though still in his stasis unit, had been able to speak with them both after being moved off the _Providence_, and into the outpost's waiting medical level. The deterioration of Thyrhan's Justice Stone had been halted due to his quick actions, and now, by using harmonic energy wavelengths to find which remaining Stone material matched his, the Protectorate scientist was slowly finding the means to heal his fractured Stone, and rejoin his family.

The only other real piece of business was integrating and updating all areas of the outpost's technology and systems, with what Elysiana and Jy had brought with them, and what the stationed crew had created and built on their own in their time at the outpost. However, that had all changed, that day, when the outpost's long range scans had detected a large amount of emergency radio signals coming from Earth. Soon, images were flowing through their screens, and the results were painfully obvious to the occupants. Elysiana gripped her son's tensed arm as they both watched in utter disbelief as the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center billowed smoke into the skies, brought forth from the collisions with the two hijacked airplanes.

To Elly, it was like seeing her sisters turn aside the very tenets of the Coda, slaughtering innocents and children just for the sake of killing. For Jysarhen, his memory flashed back to his history lessons with his father, and to the unprovoked attack and murder of several students at an academy on Aegena. They had sworn no allegiances to either side, but they had been killed without mercy. His eyes glowed with intense blue energy as he studied the images, having already been told by Cyntauros that with many levels of the outpost undergoing the retrofit, none of their transports or teleportation systems would have been able to help those humans in time.

"_Hecate_, have _pity_ on all of them..." Elysiana tearfully mused. Majestrix Alto of the Coda or not, she knew that those people in those burning buildings were not warriors or soldiers on the battlefield. They were civilians, and they had been attacked just to instill fear in others. Jysarhen could only shake his head in anger.

"Just like the academy..." The son of Elysiana groused. "Had I _been_ there...!" Elysiana caught on to what her son was implying, and gently tapped him on the back of his head.

"NO, Jysarhen Enterhos." Elysiana said, her commanding Majestrix tone echoing in his ear. "As much as it is good for you to wish to use your growing abilities to aid those of a younger race than ours, Cyntauros has already informed me that many humans on Earth would hate such beings like you... especially if you are not under the oversight of their governments."

"I... I understand, Mother." Jy replied, a Coda mantra filling his mind as he sought the calm within the tempest of his own thoughts. Remembering Cyntauros' recent briefing with his mother, Jy also recalled the senior Spartan Guard's mentioning of the rise of a subset within the human population. The majority of humanity, labeled _Homo sapiens_ in the Latin nomenclature, was relatively unaware of this evolving minority, despite the fact that they possessed a very unique, genetic difference from humanity: the X-Gene.

This incredible genetic difference soon garnered the underground terminology of _Homo superior_... because the X-Gene imparted superhuman abilities to their host, which the rest of humanity did not have. Letting the majority of humanity know straight out, that there were now people among them who could do such amazing things as manipulate energy, or even fly, would cause severe panic and rioting to occur across the planet. Having humanity meet another intelligent race from beyond the stars, then, before they even were ready to accept their own evolving species - these mutants - would not end well on either side. Taking a deep breath, Jysarhen turned to his mother.

"Well, Mother, if we are to one day, truly call Earth our new home..." The son of Thyrhan and Elysiana said as he hugged his mother, turning her away from the screen images as the once-majestic towers were displayed, right as they began to tumble and fall in on themselves to the ground. "... we must first begin to understand those of the human race who DO accept those who are different among them. In doing that, we'll be far more capable of telling the difference _between_ them... and the spiteful ones among them." Elysiana nodded.

"Your father's intuition serves you well, son." Elysiana replied. Tapping a nearby screen as he wiped away her tears, Elly contacted Cyntauros. The senior Spartan Guard's face appeared a moment later.

"Majestrix Alto. Pathwalker." The android greeted his commanders, using both her title and the command rank Thyrhan had given his son after their last Gordanian-Thanagarian entanglement. "How may I serve?"

"Prepare scanning and decipher protocols, Cyntauros." Jy stated over the channel. "The Majestrix Alto and I will soon begin research into where, on Earth, we will one day soon... build our new _home_."

"Understood." The android replied.

XXXXXX

_August 10, 2004, early evening..._

_Unnamed financial high-rise building, downtown Tokyo, Japan..._

The evening's festivities and celebrations were well underway for the merger and acquisition gala being held on the 25th floor of the gleaming skyscraper in question. The event was being held for a small, but very competent tech firm that had been recently acquired by the financial conglomerate juggernaut known as Shaw International, just three days ago. Despite the world's economy still being on somewhat shaky terms, especially in the Land of the Rising Sun, the small tech company, along with its scientists, engineers, fabricators, and even their respected directors, had been saved by the mutually beneficial buyout of their stock and debt, even though large scale restructuring of the small company had been put in play.

The only other glaring and significant detail left to handle was the company's founder, a secretive yet humble man, who had never been seen or identified publicly by name or otherwise, had given his controlling stock interest and its options to a Tibetan monastery he had likely frequented in his youth, and then again in his later years. Generous offers had been offered for those options in the past, and had been politely turned aside, until now. The day before the merger talks began, a pair of robed monks from the hidden retreat had come forward to announce the abrupt and untimely passing of the company's generous founder, due to an unknown cardiac condition a short time ago.

Documents were presented - among them, certification of death, and unassailable legal contracts that still prevented the divulgement of the man's identity, - before the monks finally spoke of their friend's last wish: to accept the generous buyout offer from Shaw International as soon as possible. The local police investigating things, to be sure that everything was on the up and up, found no evidence of fraud or subterfuge, and so, the merger went ahead as planned. Still, other inquiries remained unanswered for the managers from Shaw International: who was the founder? What had happened to him, and why had he chosen _now_ of all times to accept a buyout offer for the company he created, not to mention his choice of Shaw International as well?

In order to calm any lingering doubts from both sides, an independent and top notch security firm was hired by the directors to work alongside Shaw International's own security forces to make sure that everything was on the level for the last transfer of controlling interest and legal paperwork. No one knew then, nor did they suspect later on, just what was coming their way that night, and even if they had, they were in no way, shape, or form ready for the consequences to come. Not even the presence of one of Shaw International's top managers was going to change that outcome.

XXXXXX

_In the business offices on the unoccupied 30th floor..._

The beautiful chestnut blonde-haired, blue eyed young woman's gaze never left the lines of the legal paperwork spread out before her as she reviewed them at length, while sipping from her mug of herbal tea. At the large mahogany doors of the office, her personal security agents kept watch over her, making sure to keep any unwanted guests from attempting to bother her as she worked. Even though the young woman seated at the desk was only sixteen years old, just getting ready to turn seventeen, Emma Frost displayed no youthful qualities of recklessness; she was very good at her position in Shaw International, referred to by her own peers as a 'White Bishop' with her consummate skills in business management and financial negotiations.

A sizable personal fortune backed her up as well, and reinforced the unspoken rule that Emma's very presence _demanded_ respect. After she had finished her required duties at the gala, she had politely excused herself to finish her review of everything before informing the CEO, Sebastian Shaw himself, of their successes. Content to look out over the gleaming waters of Tokyo Bay, Emma sipped her tea again as she mused to herself just how glad she would be when she finally had her almost certain promotion from her current position in hand. Once that happened, Emma would no longer need to concern herself with such trivial mergers with lower people than herself, unless directly asked to oversee them by Shaw himself.

The days of humanity's original ruling set - _Homo sapiens_ \- lording themselves all over Earth were drawing to an end, and that would soon allow Emma and her own 'evolved' kind to rise up and claim their rightful place in the world at last. From behind the scenes for some time now, humankind had not significantly noticed the growing numbers of those people like Emma all around the world, - mutants, or _Homo superior_ \- as some of her kind now called themselves, and like Emma, their unique 'gifts' and abilities were their stepping stone to advance their standing when the time was right.

Smiling to herself, Emma turned away from her desk, and headed over to the nearby entertainment center, happily chuckling in her mind at her impressive progress over the last few years. _'White Queen will suit me, just fine.'_ As her eyes viewed the waiting world over her shoulder in the distance, Emma had no inkling that something was about to occur downstairs, several floors below the gala going on... something quite momentous indeed.

XXXXXX

_A few minutes earlier..._

On the rooftop of another financial high-rise on the same block, a lone, silent figure crouched on the crushed gravel, wearing a hooded, nondescript set of unique combat fatigues of an unfamiliar design over his body, complete with a special cloak that totally hid his well-toned frame. Black segmented gloves covered his hands, connected to forearm vambraces over his sleeves, and a stylized arcane glyph was clearly emblazoned on the back of his outfit. Barely moving at all, the lone figure calmly stared at the gala events of the other building through a pair of hi-tech binoculars, searching for his pre-selected entry point. He found it a few moments later.

Putting away his binocs after marking the area in his mind, the individual stood up from his well-concealed position. Composed thoughts ran through his mind as he stretched his limbs, going over the details of his mission - all of his goals and the obstacles that most likely stood before him, - and of the last words spoken between him and his respected mentor earlier on in the day...

_'You are ready for this, my son. After this, you will begin living among the rest of humanity at large, and in time, you will find your calling along the path that you will walk to the future, and in the battle ranks of our most noble warriors.'_

Nodding to himself, the figure flicked open a small panel on his left vambrace, showing off a digital timer that was counting down from fifteen seconds. Tapping its audio alert mode, the figure closed the vambrace again, and then crouched down, ready to act when the timer was done. He spoke to himself within the dark folds of his hood, right in time with the final count of the timer.

"Beginning Operation: Soaring Firefly, in..." He spoke to himself as the timer finished his thoughts.

"Three, two, one,... **MARK**."

The moment that the timer finished those words, the lone figure clapped his hands together, the action of which somehow generated a bluish-white vortex of pure energy before him! Then, the unknown figure actually leapt right into it, vanishing from sight just before the vortex disappeared as well! The wind whipped by the empty area of the vanished disturbance, none the wiser, and with only these fading words sounding out in the dying breeze...

_'Here comes... **trouble.'**_

XXXXXX

_Back inside the high-rise building..._

Located a few floors below where the gala was taking place, a pair of tall security guards quietly patrolled the 20th floor, where the main computer server room was located. As they performed their duties, neither of them took note of a pair of small, black circular capsules silently rolling their way, under their own power, on the carpeted floor. Just after both reported back to the main security desk over their earwigs that nothing was going on in their area and everything was quiet, as well as that they would call back again in ten minutes, the very instant their radios clicked off, the two capsules 'arrived' right behind them, before silently dispersing powerful sedative gases into the air.

The undetectable sedatives put both of the security men to sleep before they could even reach for their earwigs and call for help. As the two men fell to the floor unconscious, the two capsules suddenly levitated off the carpet, and floated away into the waiting and gloved hand of the hooded figure from the other rooftop, who had been silently standing in the shadows nearby. Although his hood still hid his eyes and the rest of his face down to the bridge of his nose, his jaw could still be seen, curling into a wry smile as he quickly pocketed the two capsules into a pouch on his outfit, and then flicked his vambrace panel open once more to flick the digital timer, which began counting down a new nine and a half minutes.

Phase One of the operation - infiltration - was done. Now, it was time for him to move to Phase Two: _delivery_.

XXXXXX

_Back in Emma's temporary office..._

Only a scant few seconds after the hooded figure had rendered the two guards unconscious, Emma glanced up from the large collection of classic vinyl records that she was looking through, as a short breather from all the legal paperwork and computer inquiries still remaining to be finished. She could have sworn that she had sensed a faint psionic signature ripple nearby, but Emma knew for a fact that, besides the other members of Sebastian's private 'court,' no other ones like her or them were in attendance at the gala event. But, like a light breeze passing through a field, the event was gone from Emma's senses, and much too quickly for her liking.

_'Something is up.'_ She thought to herself as Emma placed down the record in her hand, walked over to her desk, and thumbed the intercom for her security agent's radio line.

"Yes, Miss Frost?" The security agent said as he answered her hail.

"Any disturbances, Agent One?" Emma inquired.

"No, Miss Frost." The agent crisply responded. "All quiet now, on all floors, and every single man on the team just reported in with the 'All Clear' on their respective floors." There was a pause, and the agent continued on in his report. "All of our tagged and more 'rambunctious' guests are all now in their private suites for the evening, all tucked in tight. Double checks will be occurring in the next twenty minutes."

"I see... very well; keep me informed and up to date if anything changes, Agent One." Emma replied. "For one reason or another, I think that _something_ is afoot, but I can't put my finger on it."

"Understood, Miss Frost. Hellfire burns eternal." The agent said, returning to his patrol.

"Hellfire burns eternal." Emma answered, clicking the line silent once more.

XXXXXX

Meanwhile, back on the main server floor, the hooded individual had easily pulled both of the unconscious guards inside a nearby closet with no complaints, and had secured them both with duct tape before silently entering the secured server station by using the guards' own key cards. Now in the computer area that he sought, the hooded person quickly moved to the nearest computer terminal, checking his vambrace's digital timer once more.

_'Seven minutes and forty-eight seconds left to go. I'm ahead of schedule; **fantastic**.'_ He thought to himself as he smoothly drew out a USB-type device from one of the pouches on his outfit, flipped on the computer screen before him, and plugged the advanced ghost-drive into a unused data port. The flat-screen lit up seconds later as a progress bar appeared and began filling up, and quick phrases were soon to follow it.

_... Accessing new system..._

_... Firewalls bypassed..._

_... Counter-measures subverted..._

_... Security camera feeds copied and looped..._

_... Beginning simultaneous upload / downloads now..._

_... Onboard protocols now being delivered..._

_... Stand by..._

The man smiled at the ongoing work happening before him, then gently whispered to himself at the smooth progression of his mission so far. "Phase Two: complete; Phase Three, now in progress." Just then, the hooded person froze in place for a moment, before turning in his chair and looking around the room with slow turns of his head. The hooded infiltrator wasn't actually looking for anything in particular, but his _other_ senses were.

Even though they were mostly hidden beneath the edge of his hood, the mysterious man's eyes were now aglow with an ethereal bluish-white light, the intense power highlighting his emotionless features as his ears and his heightened awareness of his environment sought what he had just felt brush by his own presence. He now knew that someone like him - something _more_ than human, - was somewhere in the building, and had actually felt his presence, for the briefest of instances just now. Steadying his will, the person returned to his work.

_'I'd better keep my thoughts and any sounds I make to a minimum from here on it; I don't want any of the locals on my case just yet.'_ The infiltrator thought as he turned back to the computer screen, the decision made, and the hooded person smiled to himself as he saw that the ghost-drive's job was now done. Retrieving it and putting it back into his pouch, the silent figure checked his digital timer, and saw that his time frame was now down to just under five minutes, and still counting.

_'Phase Three: done. Now, it's time for the encore to bring them all running. Commencing Phase Four: let's get this party, STARTED!' _He thought as he silently left the server room after turning off the computer screen he had used. Without any further ado, he left through the main staircase with no sound at all, literally as silent as a ghost.

XXXXXX

_A few minutes earlier..._

Emma was now definitely put off by her earlier psychic sensing of that passing presence a short while ago, and especially since she had not been able to find it again. For a mutant like her, one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet, that was not acceptable in any way, shape, or form. Emma had been tapping her foot as her mental presence had been looking around the building once more, and yet again, she had found nothing at all from that presence. Pulling herself back into her body, but not before she sensed the two minds of the now-gassed guards falling into relaxed states moments earlier, Emma had seen enough; it was time to act.

Getting up from her desk, Emma walked over to the wall and pulled on her white jacket as she motioned to her security guard nearby, who had returned to report in. Seeing her getting ready to move out, he quickly opened the door to her office as he tapped his earwig to alert all his men for orders to come.

"Come with me, Agent One; something is amiss here, and we're going to find out _exactly_ what that is." Emma stated.

"Yes, Miss Frost. All team members, report in and state your location and status." Agent One replied before tapping his radio to alert all his men. "White Bishop is now on the move, possible threat in the building. Over."

Within seconds, all the floor began to report in, except for the two guards that Emma had sensed were no longer awake. Nodding in confirmation of this, she spoke again to her security head before he could attempt to raise his men again.

"Save your breath, Agent One. Those two agents are unconscious now; I sensed them falling into dream-states when I was looking for what I felt earlier on." Agent One scowled to himself as Emma then realized something. "What floor were they assigned to?"

"The 20th floor, Miss Frost... _crap!_" The agent bellowed as he also realized what Emma knew. "The servers! All available units! All available units, converge on 20th floor! Possible intruder in the main server room, all hands on deck! All hands on deck!"

Within minutes of Emma's direction, both the hired security firm team members and her personal agents began checking all areas and locking down the building floors one by one, making sure that nothing was overlooked, or got past them. They eventually located the two unconscious agents in the closet, made sure they were alive, and then, left one of their men there to tend to them while continuing their search. By then, however, none of them, not even Emma, realized that their actions were far too late to make a difference.

XXXXXX

From a perfect vantage point in the 23rd floor's air ducts, the hooded figure watched as the security teams tried to find him, while monitoring his own thoughts and his digital timer. Right as the small read-out on his vambrace read thirty seconds left, the hooded person effortlessly slid out from behind the sliding vent access door, gently closed it behind himself, and sniffed the air.

_'Four to the left, three to the right,... and with a **woman** leading those three; SHE must be the one who sensed me earlier on. Interesting... well, time to give her and those boys a SHOW!'_ The figure thought as he darted off to the left, the boots of his outfit making no sounds at all, leaving almost no trace of his passing to be found, and soon depositing him only a corner-turn away from the first set of security team agents he had smelled.

Beneath the hood of the mysterious figure, his eyes glowed again at his chosen quarry. '_Let's play.'_ The four security men never even _saw_ the hooded figure as he silently appeared down the hallway from them, nor did they hear any sounds from him as he kicked himself off the nearest wall to send his frame hurtling into their midst like a _cannonball_. His hands were his landing points underneath his body when he reached their position, in between them all, and whirled the hooded figure's inverted form into a wicked spinning series of kicks, almost as if he was a child's toy top sent spinning around.

The force of the spinning kick manuever slammed all four of the security men against the hallway walls, allowing the hooded figure's form to land on his feet with ease. Then, as the first man of the security team rebounded off the wall hard from his bodily impact with it, the hooded person immediately swept that man's feet out from underneath his stumbling form, said sweep-strike being followed up by a single, open-handed palm strike to his now-airborne target. The unfortunate security man went SAILING down the hallway, to land flat on his face in an unconscious heap with a loud THUD!

A second man in the security team, having hit the wall behind him hard but back-first, went to draw a bead on his attacker with his now-drawn firearm as he recovered his balance, only for the hooded figure to swivel clear of the line of fire and clamp a gloved hand down hard on the firearm, SNAPPING its barrel in half before he whirled back into a reverse back-handed strike to the second man's face that leveled the agent, sending him to the floor and right into dreamland.

The last two men of the group, having gotten their bearings back enough by then to aim their firearms at last, opened fire on the hooded attacker, only to see their bullets FLATTEN into dime-sized shapes against a now-visible barrier of SOMETHING between them and their attacker, a light bluish white-tinged glow highlighting the areas hit by the bullets! The moment their guns clicked empty, the barrier suddenly surged forward, _knocking_ the two standing men of the security team back into the wall behind them again.

That allowed the hooded figure to quickly close on them and land a devastating roundhouse kick to one man that put him down for the count, and leaving the last man to be rudely greeted by a perfect left-right punch combo to his face and gut, and then, a rising knee kick to his lowered and bloodied jaw that literally flipped him up and over into the air. The resounding THUD! of the security man's body to the floor confirmed his unconscious state to the hooded figure now towering over the four defeated men of the security team.

XXXXXX

Just then, Emma and her three escorts rounded the corner from where the hooded figure had attacked the first security team - and from where they had heard the gunshots ring out, - just in time to catch a glimpse of the wicked knee-kick that had put the last man down for the count. "DON'T MOVE!" The lead security man yelled at the unknown assailant as he and his men leveled their weapons at him, but all the hooded figure did at that command was look over his shoulder in their direction, letting them see the lower part of his face, and watched in utter shock as he SMILED at them, before replying.

"Try and stop me, little man."

Before any of the men could let loose with a single shot from their firearms, and even before Emma herself could level a mental attack at her foe, the hooded figure moved like quicksilver, his body darting clear out of sight down another nearby hallway. "After him, you dolts!" The men were already in motion when Emma yelled out at them, even as she began to try and psychically track the intruder on her own.

Although Emma could now see the psychic outline of his living presence, his inner mind was utterly BLANK to her probe - a truly shocking revelation to her as well, - but with only one puzzling train of thought echoing out that she was able to sense. '_The weapon is the extension of the flesh, the flesh of the mind, the mind of the soul; this is my warrior's path.' _ was all that Emma could hear coming into her mind from the unknown intruder's outer mental profile as he ran, his speed amazing, his goals... still unknown. The hooded figure's movements were all honed instinct and fluid steps, betraying no inner thoughts of their owner whatsoever, and thus allowing his conditioned reflexes and training to keep him moving toward his exit point.

Mentally, though, his mind already knew that the operation had been a complete success: the ghost-drive's infiltration, upload, and dissemination of its advanced software was now completely untraceable, and he had kept their security teams busy long enough for that software to finish the tasks necessary to put the next stage of his goals into action. Sensing himself nearing the pre-selected point of egress from the building, the hooded figure smiled and kept on moving. A few scant minutes later, Emma and her men had finally caught up to the hooded person, only to see that he had surprisingly come to a complete stop in front of one of the building's hermetically sealed windows.

However, said window was no longer sealed: it had been cleanly cut away from the metal window frame, the window pane itself propped to one side and out of the way, and with the hooded figure now standing on the open edge, the evening winds whipping the lower edges of his outfit as it framed him, his broad back and shoulders still to them as they found him. As the security team took careful aim at him, Emma quickly sized the intruder up as he stood before them.

Tall, lean of form but well built from what Emma could tell, most of his frame still cloaked and hidden by that damn outfit he was wearing, but with a stylized arcane glyph on the figure's back: they all looked at him as the winds played with his robed form as he stood in the opening to the streets far below. "On the ground, or full of holes, scumbag! Your choice! NOW!" Even as the words of the head security agent reached the man's ears, Emma quickly cut loose with a powerful psychic pulse, trying to force the man to his knees and compel him to obey those words.

Sadly, all she got was a sheer WALL of utter POWER, with no way through, and the same mantra echoing out from him as before. Then, at last, the man's voice sounded out again. "Thanks for the tour; I had... FUN." Without a second thought, the hooded figure reached out his arms, grasped the edges of the open window frame, and HURLED himself out into the night skies, still over twenty floors up from the streets below! Even though the security teams quickly made a physical wall with their bodies to keep their employer from peering out over the window's edge too far - which, Emma noted, had perfectly MELTED edges, - the White Bishop still tried to see the falling form of the intruder.

Suddenly, as he fell away, Emma saw a strange bluish-white portal appear before him on his soaring leap! Then, as it engulfed him, the hooded figure spun around, and blew Emma a kiss as he vanished from sight, the portal disappearing from sight as well! The guards, and Emma especially, were all quite shocked and very surprised at what had happened moments ago. The security guards were the first to react, calling in all of their comrades to tell them to begin a full lockdown of everything in the building for a complete inspection and investigation into any and all floors. Emma, however, kept her eyes locked on the window as it was both cordoned off by her men, and then barricaded to boot to prevent anyone from falling out the opening.

Whomever this person had been, he was battle tested, highly skilled, and most likely, like her - a _mutant_, of some kind, - but Emma hadn't been able to glean anything at all from his thoughts. To her, his mind had been, for lack of a better word... a VOID. _'This is not a good omen for us, not at all.'_ She thought to herself. Emma knew for a fact that her innate ability and honed talents could easily face off against the teacher who had first taught her more about her gifts - the miserable, foolish old goat - on even terms, but this new adversary may very well be _stronger_ than her now,... by far. '_I need to let Sebastian know what happened here, quickly.' _Emma thought as she returned to her office to mull over what had happened.

XXXXXX

_Undisclosed location..._

In an empty and darkened room, a portal of bluish-white energy appeared, and out of it, the hooded figure came flying, rolling into a perfect somersault and landing in a crouched, single-kneeling position as the portal sealed up and vanished behind him. His head remained bowed, even as he spoke to the walls.

"Operation Soaring Firefly: complete. The package was delivered without interference, and the planned diversion was successful." The hooded figure said to the air as he remained in his kneeling position. "All protocols are now in effect as requested. Awaiting next assignment."

Suddenly, a light shone down on the kneeling figure, and a calm, but firm female voice spoke from all around him in the room.

"Rise, my son. Your skill and strength in effectively inserting the package into their network was carried out with the skill worthy of our ancient training." The kneeling figure remained silent, never moving an inch as he waited to hear the next response. It was one he had been hoping for,... for a very long time.

"Rejoice, my son. You have earned the rank of Alpha Bladesman in the Brotherhood of the Sword. Any true Coda warrior of Khera itself would welcome you as a BROTHER to the fight against darkness. In the spirit of Khera, and in the spirit of our home world, I bless your ascension into the ranks of the Sword with open arms."

"Thank you for your trust." The hooded figure smiled as he answered back in kind. "With this rank that you have bestowed upon me this day, I will do all that I can to hold true to the tenets of the Brotherhood and its teachings, and to the honor of the Protectorate."

"I know you will,... MY SON." The female voice replied, as she finally stepped into view. The hooded figure smiled even wider as he heard those words coming from his left side.

"Thank you, Mother." He humbly said.

"The honor is mine, my son." The woman who stepped toward him said as she stood before him. "You have done us all, proud."

A view-screen slid out of the nearby wall, and on it, numerous figures, all of them from the loyal Falchion Praetors and trusted Spartan Guards who crewed and safeguarded the ship that ferried the young man and his family to this galaxy, and this world ten years ago, and from their hidden outpost, saluted the tall young man. The now full member of the Brotherhood of the Sword turned to see the view screen and the familiar android combatants on it, but took the time to carefully disengage the hidden clamps of his hood.

That action allowed the hood to fall back from his face and show his features at long last, while tapping his vambrace and deactivating its innate stealth features, returning his outfit to its normal colors on his body. His face was that of a young man, with a well groomed, but short bit of stubble around his jaw and lips, and long ash-gray hair with black streaks reaching down to his cheeks, but held back from the rest of his head by a hairband at the base of his neck. Still, enough of his hair remained to frame his face and highlight his clear and very intense pale crystal blue eyes.

Revealed at last, the young man smiled at the people gathered to congratulate him.

"Just following the teachings and training that you and Father passed onto me, Mother." The young man, once called 'Jager,' replied to his still-lovely mother, her light violet locks still as beautiful as the day he had first understood them to be.

"With your OWN flair, my boy." Lady Elysiana of Khera replied to her beaming child. "Your vambrace's nano-recorders caught all of your encounters flawlessly; most impressive."

"May not be as fun or as effective as using my powers actively in broad daylight, Mother, but it sure got the job done." Jager quipped.

"Indeed, it did, my son." Elysiana said as she viewed a section of the screen, looking over ongoing calculations on it. "The protocols will keep the monastery well-funded through various charities, and it will even put enough aside for both your endeavors now, and to come."

"You meant it, then, Mother?" Jager inquired. "I'm finally going to be able to live like a 'regular' citizen from now on?"

"In status and standing only, my son." Elysiana replied.

"So, you really think I'll be able to go to this Professor Xavier's Institute in the future, Mother, and fit in?" Jager responded.

"Without a doubt, Jy." Elysiana smiled at her son. "Adding you into whatever number of mutants and possible metahumans he could soon find in the next few years will be the best path for you." Elysiana then ruffled her son's smooth hair, even though he now stood over her by a few inches.

"Excellent." Jager replied.

"And, to think, your control over all your abilities has truly become worthy of fighting in a platoon of Spartan Guards, or the Falchion Praetors, or even in the ranks of the Coda or the Brotherhood of the Sword. Assuredly, you would be welcome among the Protectorate's most hardy combatants." Elysiana continued on. "They'd be lucky to have you at Xavier's Institute, my son, especially now that we've been hearing about this 'Child from the Star' from that mutant clairvoyant over the past few years."

"High praise, Mother, but you already know that Ozar`e and Zhendo are still wary about me being out and about by myself." Jager groused.

"Yes, I know, my son." Elysiana replied. "Still, the Praetors are working hard on pinning down that prophecy's parameters, and making sure that you only add your strength when it is truly needed."

"Fair enough, Mother." Jager answered back. "Neither the _Dragtyl_ nor the _Providence_, or any of our resources, are to be used lightly in any case, given the greedy... _jackals_ that we've noticed around this young world."

"I know, Jy." Elysiana said, remembering how Jager had groused about how one Senator in the United States was utterly obtuse in seeing just how much harm his efforts against mutants and metahumans was hurting them in the long run, even though the mutant populace had yet to publicly reveal their presence to the world at large.

"In any case, Mother, I'll do my best to uphold the standards you've put forward, as well as doing my utmost... for Father." Jager lowered his head, remembering sadly that his father, the noble Aegenian Thyrhan Enterhos, was still in advanced cryo-stasis, his own Justice Stone still undergoing a slow regenerative process to heal its molecular structure. The random dimensional anomaly that had damaged his Stone was still being reviewed by other scientific Spartan Guards on the _Providence_, and at the outpost.

Without proper calibration to handle such events in advance, the anomaly forced Thyrhan into stasis to heal, while Elysiana, Jager, and the Praetors sought out a way to heal him and his Stone after their arrival in the Sol system. Fresh amounts of the symbiotic stone would achieve that effect over time, but without Thyrhan's knowledge of how his own stone had been calibrated in his youth, nor an active dimensional portal back to Aegena for fresh supplies of the symbiotic stone to supplant that need, it was a very slow option. Still, it was their only available avenue.

Even the advanced Kheran technology in their possession could not repair the damage done to his father's living Stone... not yet, anyway. Even so, in cryo-stasis, Thyrhan's vitals remained stable, and his Stone would not decay any further. Fortunately, Jager did not have to worry about such random events harming himself; to this day, any type of event involving dimensional anomalies and their energies never even phased his own Justice Stone, and the unique, protective iris that his mother had helped create for his Stone allowed him to both use his powers normally, and protected it from any direct attack. Elysiana noticed him deep in thought, and brought him back to the moment.

"You'll do fine, Jy." Elysiana said, touching her son's face.

"Same time frame?" Jager inquired, gently pushing aside his sadness to concentrate on the conversation.

"Most likely; a year or so in our chosen place, and then, we'll let Xavier get a fix on you with his machine for a meet and greet." Elysiana said. "I have no intention of letting any government agency attempt to enlist you into their services, legally or forcibly."

"Finally!" Jager crowed.

"And, after that time frame is over, my son, you'll be ready for the world to meet you at last; no more hiding, and best of all, free reign to work on those archived objectives your father left to you, when the time comes for them, of course." Elysiana stated to her son.

"I can't wait." Jager nodded, absently clenching his fists.

"Indeed, my son." Elysiana replied. "Now, go get yourself cleaned up, and get some food into yourself; you'll be moving out in a few hours to your new home in the world."

"Location?" Jager inquired as he took off his gloves and tucked them into his belt.

"Same city, my son." Elysiana said.

"Land of the Rising Sun?" Jager replied, rubbing his chin for a moment before smiling. "Suits me, just fine."

XXXXXX

_At an undisclosed safe house, near midnight..._

"You are quite sure of this, Emma?"

The haughty voice over the phone line - the commanding tone of Sebastian Hiram Shaw, CEO of Shaw International, and the 'Black King' of the secretive 'Inner Circle' he led behind the scenes - responded to Emma's report on the intrusion during the merger.

"Yes, Lord Imperial." Emma's words were clear and precise as she used the proper title for the top member of the enigmatic Hellfire Club, and her boss. "The unidentified intruder we encountered tonight was, for certain, a military-grade combatant, and his mind was - as hard as it is for me to conceive it - BLANK, to my senses."

"Really?" Shaw answered. "Intriguing..."

"The only thing that I did feel about him besides his psychic presence, once I actually saw him, of course, was a repeating mantra, one that only a honed warrior of several conflicts would use, I assume." Emma replied to Shaw's statement. "Beyond that, Lord Imperial, I can only speculate on who and what he was at this time, and what he was doing in the building."

"A mutant, my dear?" Shaw inquired.

"A very definite possibility, Lord Imperial." Emma stated, recalling her encounter with the hooded individual. "Our security agents said that when they did open fire on him, some type of bluish white-tinged barrier stopped their shots, and then, that very same barrier MOVED forward to knock them back."

"Impressive. Anything else?" Shaw continued on.

"Yes; they also reported that he was able to break one of the guns into pieces with one hard grasp, and that his blows felt heavily weighted when he hit them." Emma answered back. "Not to mention, he moved like he had liquid mercury in his veins."

"Strength, speed, psychic evasion tactics, and skills far above normal humans, eh?" Shaw thought out loud. "An interesting quarry, indeed, Emma dear. I'm thankful you weren't hurt. But, our network was not compromised in any way?"

"No traces found at all, Lord Imperial." Emma replied.

"You are positive, Emma? The Circle cannot afford to take any risks in any of our endeavours." Shaw sternly spoke.

"The computer systems were all triple-checked on-site, Lord Imperial, and all network connections authenticated by our experts. No hacking attempts or downloads were found." Emma coolly replied.

"Most peculiar." Shaw said, again stating his thoughts out loud and to Emma. "So, an unknown, persistent fly in the ointment; something to be mindful of, but in the end, nothing that will change our plans."

"Still reviewing that prophecy, eh, Lord Imperial?" Emma inquired.

"Irene Adler is the Real McCoy, Emma." Shaw replied. "Strong portents like hers are not to be denied, or ignored."

"Agreed, Lord Imperial. Is there anything else you wish of me?" Emma said, remaining patient.

"Keep up with your studies, and your own training with your skills, Emma dear. Unknowns must always be prepared for." Shaw replied.

"Yes, Lord Imperial." Emma nodded.

"Despite this little disturbance, your promotion is well in hand, my dear." Shaw said, his grin apparent. "'White Queen' will indeed suit you well, Emma dear."

"I'm humbled by the honor, Lord Imperial." Sebastian chuckled at Emma's reply.

"As much as one so lovely and skilled like you can be, Emma dear. Good night; I'll see you when you return to the States next week." Shaw said with a nod.

"Yes, Lord Imperial. Good night; hellfire burns eternal." Emma replied to the Hellfire Club's leader.

"Hellfire burns eternal." Shaw said before he terminated the link on his terminal.

As Emma hung up the phone, she thought back of the mysterious intruder, and his last gesture of a 'kiss' back at her. 'Who are you, mystery man? I am suitably intrigued.' She pondered, looking out into the night from her posh hotel suite.

End Chapter Two

* * *

_Jysarhen and his mother saw humanity's pain on 9/11..._

_They have established their position on Earth in secret..._

_What awaits the Pathwalker and the Majestrix Alto in their future...?_

_Stay tuned for the next movement!_


End file.
